Election 2012: Immigration a top issue among Hispanics

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2012, file photo, Spanish language election campaign signs promoting President Barack Obama hang on the windows at Lechonera El Barrio Restaurant in Orlando, Fla. Hispanics supported President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney by almost 3-to-1 and put Republicans on notice they must take real steps to win over the nation's largest minority group if they want to win the presidency again. Exit polls say that Romney, who has backed hardline immigration measures, won only 27 percent of Hispanics. (AP Photo/Julie Fletcher)

Across the nation, about 75 percent of the Hispanic vote went to Obama, according to an impreMedia-Latino Decision poll. Only 23 percent of Hispanics supported Republican nominee Mitt Romney, which was 17 percent less than President George W. Bush in 2004.

If Romney had gained more than 30 percent of Hispanic support, it's possible that the scales would have tipped in his favor, said Gary Segura, principal of Latino Decisions and chairman of Chicano/Chicana studies at Stanford University.

About 5,600 Hispanic voters across the nation participated in the survey.

Advertisement

"Parties have incorrectly believed that you can separate the immigration issue from Latino voters," Segura said. "But when 60 percent of Latino voters know an undocumented alien, and 90 percent of all those registered are either one or two generations away from the immigration experience -- it's clear that a majority of Latinos would be less enthusiastic about Romney because of his statements on immigration."

Segura was referring to Romney's opposition to the Dream Act, which would give children who were brought by their parents to the United States at the age of 15 or younger, a path to U.S. citizenship.

Eliseo Medina, Secretary-Treasurer for the Service Employees International Union, said Hispanics distanced themselves further from the GOP after Romney issued a statement in January at the Florida Republican debate.

"If people don't get work here, they're going to self-deport to a place where they can work," Romney said during the debate.

After some initial backlash, Romney changed his tune but the damage was already done, Segura said.

"Due to the GOP's stance, they left a lot of votes on the table," Segura said. "If the GOP had taken a role in passing a comprehensive reform with a path to citizenship, then it would have made Latino's 31 percent more likely to vote for the Republican Party."

Coming into the 2012 election, many Hispanics in the national poll said they were less enthusiastic about Obama but that feeling changed in June when he announced a change to the immigration policy that would stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

As a result, 58 percent of Hispanic voters said the president's actions made them more likely to vote for them.

"Romney really screwed up in his comments on immigration," Medina said. "He sealed his fate in the primary by running extremely negative ads on immigration and said they only come out for a hand out, and by threatening to add administrative actions against DREAMers. After the primary, the majority of the Latino community did not want to have anything to with Romney."

University of Texas at El Paso political science professor José D. Villalobos said Hispanics gave Obama the "benefit of the doubt" to continue with reforming immigration laws and other promises he made in his first term.

In the survey, 56 percent of Hispanics voters polled felt Romney was indifferent to their concerns.

Clarissa Martinez, director of civic engagement and immigration for the National Council of La Raza, also attributed the president's win to the increasing number of the Hispanic population.

By 2028, there will be an additional 890,000 Hispanics registered to vote, Martinez said.

"Latinos will continue to play a decisive role in elections and we are going to be a permanent fixture in votes up for grabs," Martinez said.

The Hispanic impact was felt in Texas' state and local elections also.

Although voter turnout in El Paso was lower than in 2008, the majority of voters supported Democrats and immigration reform, which replaced several seats in the Texas House of Representatives, said University of Texas at El Paso political science Professor Gregory Rocha.

Rocha pointed to the Texas Board of Education race in which Charlie Garza won in 2010 but was defeated by Democratic challenger Martha Dominguez and the races for congressional seats.

Former city Rep. Beto O'Rourke, trumped Republican challenger Barbara Carrasco in the race for District 16 in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republican incumbent Dee Margo was unseated by his Democrat opponent Joe Moody for the state house District 78, which represents West and Northeast El Paso.

"We knew that the immigration reform was a huge issue with Latino voters," said Rebecca Acuña, spokeswoman for the Gallego Campaign. "So much so that our final ad was on immigration reform and 'Quico' Canseco's opposition to the Dream Act."

O'Rourke, after winning the seat held by U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, also made it a point to push for immigration reform.

"We need to recognize the fact that there are millions of workers in this country who are doing jobs that native-born Americans don't want to do," O'Rourke said. "We need to make sure that these folks are working those jobs are paid a fair and honest wage and are afforded workplace conditions you and I take for granted. Many of these workers may not want to live in the United States, but we have to recognize that there is far more demand in this country for foreign-born labor than our laws and the number of visas issued annually allow."

Although the Democratic candidates across the nation picked up a few seats in the House, they were still short 25 seats to regain control of it. But that may change if the Hispanic population continues to grow and support the Democratic Party.

"If you take an overall look at the voters nationally, there was a slight dip in the percentage of voters but there was also a small uptick in Latino voters," Rocha said. "And that trend is going to start building, and it's going to start taking off here in few years given the demographics of the nation. So there has been much talk about what the Republican Party should do now in order to appeal to Latino voters."